Week on the land 2023

Elsie Fabian School celebrated their Fall Week on the Land as part of the Indigenous -led, land-based learning which is the foundation of Elsie Fabian School. We used land-based activities to re-engage Fort McKay students in learning important aspects of their own education: building community connectedness, revitalizing Dene and Cree language, and gaining cultural knowledge and confidence. By using the-on-the-land teachings with the provincially required curriculum outcomes during our Week on the Land experiences, we reinforce the land learning experiences and gain grade-level expectations in a complimentary manner. We must remember Indigenous people of the past had their own classrooms – the elders and Knowledge keepers taught all the skills including numeracy, science, plant identification, and comprehension skills.

The Fall Week on the Land follows the seasonal calendar of the Cree and Dene People. In both Cree( Onocihitopesim) and Dene ( Denjye etk’ enadaihiza) the month of September translates to Mating season or Moose breeding. Both September and October were times to get ready for winter. Our week included moose calling, making dry meat from moose and moose hide making. Other activities are identifying plants, drumming, scaling fish and making fish scale art, tipi teachings, traditional games, and preparing a bear pelt. We also had a Metis tent to acknowledge our Metis people and their teachings. As well we had Elder Joe Grandjambe teaching about trapping and displaying pelts of lynx, wolverine, fishers and fox. We ended the week on Thursday by inviting the community to come in for a traditional meal. We followed the meal with both a jigging and a moose calling contest and a celebration with a round dance in the gym.